The present invention pertains to the aircraft guidance art and, more particularly, to a system for controlling aircraft flight during landing flare.
A critical portion of aircraft landing trajectory is commonly known as flare-out or flare. Flare is that portion of the landing trajectory between the fixed angle glideslope and aircraft runway touchdown. Thus, it is desirable, particularly for commercial aircraft that the flare profile depart smoothly from the fixed angle glideslope approach thereby providing a smooth transition to runway taxiing.
Aircraft automatic landing flare performance is determined by a flare control law. In the prior art, such control laws have not exhibited satisfactory stability and precision command tracking. As a result, the actual touchdown point of the aircraft on the runway has varied considerably. This is undesirable both for safety reasons and because there are tightening regulations on aircraft landing dispersion.
Thus, there has been a long felt need in the aircraft guidance control art for improved aircraft flare control.